The waiting game

First service: the waiting staff at celebrity parties and film premiers are often students trying to earn a crust

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Worth the wait?

Mat Smith

12:01AM BST 20 Jun 2004

Serving Champagne to celebrities or stacking supermarket shelves? When it comes to summer jobs, there's no contest, says Mat Smith

`We are always serving the royal family," says Charlie Smith, MD of catering agency At Your Service (AYS), "and they're great. Prince Charles always talks to the staff, and is interested in what everybody has to say. It's the B- or C-list celebrities you have to watch out for, those whose egos are considerably bigger than their value."

AYS provides workers to outside caterers of all shapes and sizes, and has about 10,000 staff on its books, the majority of them students. Unlike their university contemporaries, these lucky few will spend the summer pouring expensive Champagne for the rich and famous instead of stacking tins of cider at the supermarket.

The work can range from serving at huge film premieres with hundreds of other waiters, to waiting at a dinner party in a private house with just a couple of other staff. With bar and catering work second only to the retail sector in the number of students it employs, Smith can afford to be choosy: "We have the sons and daughters of MPs, rock stars and a number of members of European royal families working for us."

Sarah-Jane Allen has just finished her second year of a biological sciences degree at King's College, London. "During term time, I can work about two days a week," she says. "I fit it around lectures. Then I try to work pretty much all the time during the holidays. It's very hard work but good fun, one of my first jobs was the 2 Fast 2 Furious premiere – it's amazing to see how they set these things up."

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"We also worked at the premiere of Kill Bill 2. Initially I was very celebrity-orientated. I'd be calm when I was outside serving, but then when I was back in the kitchen I'd be like `Wow' – but you have to make sure that you don't get starstruck when you are working."

Daisy Bird, a former AYS waitress who now works in PR, says: "It's very good fun, and a great way to meet people and enter into the life of the city."

The company trains its staff to silver-service standard, and ensures that they are turned out in whatever outfit the occasion demands. According to Sally Swadling, a second-year human geography student at London's Queen Mary college, this can be quite strange: "We did the premiere of Master and Commander, and the party was held in Billingsgate Market. All the bars were shaped as ships, and we had to wear flashing `ship' hats. It was great fun."

That said, there are some celebrities who give the students a hard time says Smith: "The staff do have to put up with a lot, and they have to show huge self-control. At a recent function, one of our staff was handing out canapés to the guests, when she received a forceful tap on the shoulder. She turned round to find the guest motioning for her to hold out her hand, which she warily did, and he promptly spat out a half-chewed canapé in her palm. Rather than shove it back in his mouth, she went to the kitchen and vented her frustration there."

Anthony Murombe-Chivero is a former waiter who is now involved in the day-to-day organisation of the company. "I was working at Kevin Spacey's 39th birthday, and he gave us free tickets for his play, which was on in London at the time."

Anthony was working for AYS while studying in Manchester. "I would arrange to work when I was coming to London for a weekend – I would go out on the Saturday night, having worked on the Friday."

"Working with celebrities is fine, but it helps if you are something of a chameleon if you can fit into any type of situation. As long as you are chatty but professional, celebrities are just normal people."

For more information, call At Your Service on 020 7610 8610 or see www.ays.co.uk.